There's something I want to clarify. The way I spell Magick. I'm Pagan, and there is a big difference between magick and magic for me. Magic is an illusion, the tricks like what Dynamo does, and Magick is the practice of my Craft. So, please don't get annoyed with the way I spell Magickal Princess, because that's how it is spelt to me, because Seraphina had real magick while she was alive. OK? Thank you all, Izzi xxx
Sarah:
Watching Clara's dad. Now that was something strange. We were both hiding behind classic annuals, watching him struggle as the breeze played havoc with a map as he walked down a street. Suddenly a dead leaf flew into Clara's dad's face, and he staggered in surprise into the path of an oncoming car, before a lady grabbed him out of the way. "Oh, my stars. Are you all right?"
"Yeah." He nodded, suddenly transfixed by the girl. We skipped about 6 months into the future, where they'd started dating and were running home through the rain, stopping under the front porch. "So, I've got something for you."
"What?" He took out the dead leaf, the same one that Clara had in her book and that I drew. "You kept it?"
Dave nodded again, smiling. "Of course I kept it."
"Why?"
"Because this exact leaf had to grow in that exact way in that exact place so that precise wind could tear it from that precise branch and make it fly into this exact face at that exact moment. And if just one of those tiny little things had never happened, I'd never have met you. Which makes this the most important leaf in human history."
We turns our faces as they kissed, and the Doctor smiled a little at me, kissing my own cheek as we went to the TARDIS, watching time slowly pass as they got the little bundle of joy that was Clara, who from a young age loved the 101 Places To See book.
"Give it a kick." Her dad told her when she was about 3 or 4, playing in the park with a football, which she then proceeded to kick into the Doctors face, knocking him down as I gasped, and he then adopted a defensive position before realising what had happened.
And then her mum ran over, making sure he was alright, while I was just laughing. "Oh, my stars! Are you all right?"
"Fine. Marvellous. Refulgent. Possibly a bit embarrassed." The Doctor frowned, looking from me to Ellie. "That's not dangerous, is it?"
She blinked, confused. "What's not?"
"Embarrassment. In front of my girlfriend." Aww, he was so cute, so I hugged him, kissing his cheek.
"Not usually. Not to my knowledge. Not that she cares" She laughed, as Dave came over with Clara, who looked so sweet. If we ever told her what was going on, I was so teasing her about being such a cute baby.
He smiled, wrapping his arm tight around my waist and holding me to him. "Good. Hey. Phew."
"Mate, I'm so sorry. She wants to be Bryan Robson."
"No worries. Our fault. No harm done." We both smiled down at the tiny Clara. "Hello there."
Her mum answered as we looked up for an answer. "Clara."
"Ah. Hello there, Clara."
The last stop... It was horrible. Ellie Oswald had just died and they were just stood by her grave, looking at it like they wished they could rewind time and change it. But a paradox would happen.
We left them to it, heading back to the TARDIS where the Doctor went on a mini rampage. "She's just a girl. How can she be?" The scanner popped up with a picture of her from a ship called Alaska, before I met the Doctor. "She can't be. She is. She can't be. She's not possible."
"Love, come on, calm down." I told him, pulling him into a hug. "We're researchers, and development comes after research. We'll work it out, Lovely Love."
And then Clara came in, making us jump away from each other laughing, like we'd been doing more than just embracing. "Morning all. So we're moving through actual time? So what's it made of, time? I mean, if you can just rotor through it, it's got to be made of stuff, like jam's made of strawberries. So what's it made of?"
"Well, not strawberries. No. No, no, no. That would be unacceptable. I'm allergic as well unfortunately." I smiled sadly, for some reason remembering myself eating strawberries and cream like nobodies business.
She gave us an inquisitive stare that made me smile. "And we can go anywhere?"
"Within reason." The Doctor nodded, then paused. "Well, I say reason."
"So, we could go backwards in time."
"And space, yes."
"And forwards in time."
"And space." He added again, just to make sure she knew. "Totally. So, where do you want to go, eh? What do you want to see?"
Clara suddenly seemed a little distress, trying to think of something. "I don't know. You know when someone asks you what's your favourite book and straight away you forget every single book that you've ever read?"
I put my hand up, knowing that I must have read so many books before I lost my memory. At the moment I was still reading Lord of the Rings. "Yes but I have a Doctor's note." Said Doctor swatted at me affectionately before holding me close and kissing my temple. So sweet. "Back to the question?"
"Okay. So. So. So. So I'd like to see. I would like to see. What I would like to see is," She looked up at us and gave a sly smile. "Something awesome."
Clara:
The Doctor was guiding both Sarah and I out of the Tardis with our eyes closed, because this was her first major trip as well, other than from the Victorian Era to my modern day, and we were holding each others hands in anticipation. "Can you feel the light on your eyelids, girlies? That is the light of an alien sun. Forward a couple of steps. Okay. Are you ready?"
"Yes. No. Yes." Oh, this was just so exciting!
There was a lot of glee in his voice next. "Welcome to the Rings of Akhaten, Clara Oswalds, and Lady Sarah Lake." I wanted to know why he thought the beautiful blue haired woman was a Lady, like a proper Lady.
But then I opened my eyes, and saw that we were standing on a small ledge overlooking an asteroid belt circling a massive star. This, this was why I wanted to travel, to see things like this. "It's."
"It is." The Doctor laughed, holding his girlfriend lightly as she stared transfixed at the sigh in front of her. "It so completely is. But wait, there is more."
"More what?"
"Wait, wait, wait." He looked at his watch and then grinned even wider. "In about five, four, three, two-"
The asteroids moved on to reveal a golden pyramid glinting on a rock closer to the sun, that just looked fantastic, so different to anything I could see on Earth. "What is it?"
"The Pyramid of the Rings of Akhaten. It's a holy site for the Sun Singers of Akhat."
Sarah and I both blinked at him. "The who of what?"
"Seven worlds orbiting the same star." The Doctor explained, shining like a star himself with how happy he was. He was an eternal 5 year old. "All of them sharing a belief that life in the universe originated here, on that planet."
We stared at him, Sarah's snowdrop eyes as big as a sheet of paper. "All life?"
"In the universe."
"Did it?" Because that would be just a little bit awesome.
"Well, it's what they believe. It's a nice story."
"Can we see it? Up close?" So back into the TARDIS, we teleported, or flew, or materialised, whichever one, to the main market space, that was full with a wide range of alien species, although they were all upright bipeds. "Where are they from?"
"Oh, you know, the local system, mostly."
"What do we call them, Love?" Sarah added, lacing her pale pianist fingers through his and standing close.
He used his free hand to start pointing at different aliens in the area. "Well, let's see. Ah! There go some Panbabylonians. A Lugal-Irra-Kush. Some Lucanians. A Hooloovoo. Ah! Qom VoTivig." Him and this other alien bloke exchanged a very, very strange greeting that concluded with a pelvic thrust. So glad he wasn't my boyfriend... "That chap's a Terraberserker of the Kodion Belt. You don't see many of them around any more. Oh! That's an Ultramancer. Do you know, I forget how much I like it here. We should come here more often."
We both stopped, staring after him. "You've been here before?"
"Yes, yes, yes. I came here a long time ago with my granddaughter and Seraphina. She didn't like it, but oh well." And then he dashed off through the crowds, leaving Sarah and I to try and catch up with him, and when we did, he was holding a basket of blue glowing globes. "Exotic fruit of some description." Taking one each, we tried it as he scanned. "Right. Non-toxic, non-hallucinogenic. High in free radicals and low in other stuff, I shouldn't wonder." Ew, no, totally gross. "No?"
"So, why is everyone here?" Sarah asked, finishing hers. Weird taste buds...
"For the Festival of Offerings. Takes place every thousand years or so, when the rings align. It's quite a big thing, locally, like Pancake Tuesday." Oh, that was so real, honestly. Pancake Tuesday, Festival of Offerings.
He again went on, and we got cornered by an alien with teeth, who then snarled like a dog at us. "Oh! Er, Doctor?" The Doctor came back, barking like a Yorkshire terrier back at them. Just a typical Wednesday... "What's happening? Why is it angry?"
"This isn't an it, it's a she. Dor'een, meet Clara and my Lady Sarah. Sarah, Clara, meet Dor'een."
"The both of us looked at him. "Doreen?"
He waved his hand a little. "Loose translation. She sounds a bit grumpy but she's a total love actually, aren't you? Yes, you are." He tickled her under the chin like an actual dog. "No, actually, she's just asking if we fancy renting a moped."
"So, how much does it cost?" Sarah asked, leaning into him again.
"Not money. Something valuable. Sentimental value. A photograph, love letter, something like that. That's what's used for currency here. Psychometry. Objects psychically imprinted with their history. The more treasured they are, the more value they hold." The Doctor explained to us, and we both stared at him.
"That's horrible."
The Doctor just shrugged. "Better than using bits of paper."
"Then you pay."
He gave us a look. "With what?"
"You're a thousand years old. You must have something you care about."
I watched him take out his sonic, then a ring, but then pocketed them again. Wedding ring. But then I turned away to see what Sarah was looking at and then turned back, seeing he was gone. "Doctor? Doctor?" A young girl ran round the corner, stopping and looking terrified.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked, but she just ran on as two other men arrived.
"Have you seen her?"
We both blinked. "Who?"
"The Queen of Years."
That really didn't help, we were tourists. "Who?" They split up to search for whoever this was, and then we followed the girl, finding her in a storeroom. "Hello?"
Something banged behind us and we jumped a mile as the girl appeared. "Hey. Are you okay? Are you lost?" She ran off again, and Sarah was already off after her.
"Are you all right? What are you doing?"
"Hiding."
Hmmm... "Oh. Why?"
This really seemed to confuse the little girl, who Sarah was staring at now we could see her face. She'd drawn her, I saw the sketch. "You don't know me?"
"Sorry. Actually not. I mean, I have a drawing, that resembles you, but that's about it."
She frowned again. "So why did you follow me?"
"To help." I told her, as we both bent to her level. "You looked lost."
"I don't believe you."
"We've got no idea who you might be." Sarah smiled, sitting on her legs and just watching her carefully. "We've never been here before. We've never been anywhere like here before. We just saw a little girl who looked like she needed help."
"Really?"
I nodded, putting my arm around my blue haired friends shoulder. "Really really."
"Can you help me?"
We both grinned. "That's why we're still here."
"Because I need to hide."
Black smoke then materialised into three possible robots. A voice whispers in the air, like a thousand voices in the wind. "Merry. Where are you, Merry?"
Our grins got wider. "We know the perfect box."
The girl took a hand each from us and we dashed through the store room, heading towards the TARDIS, and we hid her behind us as people went past. "What's this?"
"A space-shippy thing. Timey, spacey." I mumbled, trying to understand it myself, though Sarah should really be in the one explaining it.
The little girl was staring at it. "It's teeny."
"You wait." I pushed at the doors, but they didn't budge, and Sarah's key refused to turn in the lock for either of us. "Oh, come on."
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know. I don't think it likes me, or Sarah." I grumbled, shaking the doors again. 2Come on, let us in." The girl ran around the back of the TARDIS, and Sarah dashed after her.
"Hey. Hey, little girl."
She stuck her head back around the other end, looking at us. "My name's Merry."
We went and sat next to her at the back of the TARDIS, and Sarah wrapped her arms around her like a mum would. I wonder if she was a mum, she had that air about her, but she obviously didn't know. "So, what's happening? Is someone trying to hurt you?"
"No. I'm just scared."
I didn't like the sound of that. "Of what?"
"Getting it wrong."
"Okay." We glanced at each other and then I went into a sort of teacher mode. "Can you pretend like I'm totally a space alien and explain?"
Merry took a deep breath, still leaning into Sarah. She would be a great mum either way. "I'm Merry Gejelh."
Still not helping. God, I've never felt like such a tourist. "Really not local. Sorry."
"The Queen of Years?" She was looking as though we were remedial, which we were in this. "They chose me when I was a baby, the day the last Queen of Years died."
"Okay."
Merry sighed again, looking at Sarah and then me. "I'm the vessel of our history. I know every chronicle, every poem, every legend, every song."
That... That sounded amazing, but such a lot to put on a small girl. "Every single one? Blimey. I hated history."
"And now I have to sing a song in front of everyone. A special song. I have to sing it to a god. And I'm really scared."
I moved a little closer then. "Everyone's scared when they're little. I used to be terrified of getting lost. Used to have nightmares about it. And then I got lost. Blackpool beach, Bank holiday Monday, about ten billion people. I was about six. My worst nightmare come true."
The girl was hanging onto my every word. "What happened?"
"The world ended. My heart broke." I admitted, and then smiled. "And then my mum found me. We had fish and chips, and she drove me home and she tucked me up and she told me a story."
"And you were never scared again?"
Well. "Oh, I was scared lots of times, but never of being lost."
Sarah gave me a warm smile and tucked a lock of Merry's hair behind her ear. "So, this special song. What are you scared of, exactly?"
"Getting it wrong. Making Grandfather angry."
"And do you think you'll get it wrong, Little Dove?" She asked softly, smiling. "Because I don't. I don't think you'll get it wrong. I think you, Merry Gejelh, will get it very, very right." Then Merry hugged her and me, and we lead her back to the bazaar, and reunited with the Choristers who put a lei around the little girls neck and lead her away.
And finally the Doctor turned up, eating one of the glowing blue fruits and wrapped his arms around Sarah, making her yelp and drop to the ground in shock. She really hadn't noticed him coming up behind her. "Sorry, dear. What have you two been doing?"
"Exploring," Sarah laughed, getting to her feet and kissing him quickly. "Where are we going now?"
And then we were pulled into a semicircular amphitheatre facing the pyramid asteroid. "Shush, shush. Sorry. Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry. Excuse me."
"Sorry, sorry." And then we managed to find a couple of seats, Sarah contentedly sitting on his lap to be able to fit. "Are we even supposed to be here?" They kept shushing me, so I gave up as Merry started singing beautifully, having gotten a warm smile from both of us.
"Akhaten. O god of Akhaten."
The Doctor was reading a leaflet, finding out about all of this. "They're singing to the Mummy in the Temple. They call it the Old God. Sometimes Grandfather."
"What are they singing?"
"The Long Song." He replied, his hands holding Sarah close as she rested her head against his. "A lullaby without end to feed the Old God. Keep him asleep. It's been going for millions of years, chorister handing over to chorister, generation after generation after generation."
The congregation held out their hands, giving something to the sky. "What are they doing?"
"Those are offerings. Gifts of value. Mementoes to feed the Old God." He said, and the offerings dissolved into sparkles, the song still resonating in the area. She was perfect. "Lay, lay down" He sang with it, softly so just we could hear it, but then the Pyramid started rumbling and the Chorister and Merry stopped singing.
An energy beam lifted Merry off her pedestal and pulled her back through space towards the Pyramid. "Okay, what's happening? Is that supposed to happen?"
"Help!" Merry screamed, as Sarah was staring after her, her eyes wide in horror.
"Is somebody going to do something?" I asked, looking around everywhere, seeing everyone just watching her. "Excuse me, is somebody going to help her?"
Then the Doctor got to his feet, walking back into the bazaar, while Sarah was still with me, gobsmacked at how he was just leaving. "Why are we walking away, Love? We can't just walk away. This is our fault! We talked her into doing this."
"Listen. There's one thing you need to know about travelling with me, for the both of you. Well, one thing apart from the blue box and the two hearts." Well, there was just a little bit more than that, oh goody. "We don't walk away." Then he spoke with Dor'een, while Sarah looked at me.
"I really don't know how I drew her Clara..."
I hugged her, seeing how scared she was over this, about drawing the future. "Hey, knowing her, you could use that to help. You drew her singing, and I was next to her, Lady Sarah. Maybe that means we save her because it hasn't happened yet."
"Clara, I don't know who I am. It scares me so much, that I know things, but I don't even know my real name." She pulled back, her pure white eyes brimming with tears, but pushed them away as the Doctor came back over.
"I need something precious." There was a small smile after he looked at Sarah. "More than you, my sweet Lady."
Why did he need something from us? "Well, you must have something. All the places you've seen, there must be something."
The sonic screwdriver. "This. And I don't want to give it away, because it comes in handy. The only other thing is all I have of someone." His wedding ring. Not even Sarah could argue him keeping that.
"You're a thousand years old and that's it?" Sarah asked him, folding her arms. "Your spanner? I have the same and I'm an amnesiac!"
He didn't have much of an argument, so just corrected her. "Screwdriver."
So I just took off one of my rings, looking at it longingly before holding it up. "It's my mum's." And then I gave it to the dog woman, who let us get on. I just hoped we managed to save her.
The Doctor:
This moped was rather fast, but it wasn't fast enough, so just as Clara reached for Merry, she was dragged into the Pyramid and the door slammed shut. "Brakes! Brakes!" Sarah screamed, hiding her face in my back, squeezing incredibly tight as we crash landed.
"Okay, time to let go, Dear." I wheezed, feeling her crush my lungs.
"I can't."
Oh, come on. "Sarah, you have to."
"Why?"
"Because it really hurts." She let go, apologising as I went over to Clara who was already looking at the door, trying to find a trigger to get it open, but I scanned it, shaking my head. "Oh, that's interesting. A frequency modulated acoustic lock. The key changes ten million zillion squillion times a second."
Both girls looked at me. "Can you open it?"
"Technically, no. In reality, also no, but still, let's give it a stab." I got to work, while Sarah started chewing through her thumb nail, looking back at the people, still watching.
"How can they just stand there and watch?"
Because they're idiots? No, that's cruel. "Because this is sacred ground."
Clara was furious at this, as was I. "And she's a child."
"And he's a god. Well, he is to them, anyway."
Then we heard Merry scream inside the Pyramid, and Sarah hit her hands against the door, like she was trying to break through. Not even a Dalek could get through. "Merry! Merry, hold on! We'll be there soon." She looked back at me. "Doctor?"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes." Then the sonic clicked. "Oh, hello."
The girls looked interested then "Hello what?"
"The sonic's locked on to the acoustic tumblers."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning I get to do this." I lifted the door via the sonic, standing under to hold it up. "Hello there. I'm the Doctor, and you've met Clara and my girlfriend Lady Sarah. They were supposed to be having a nice day out. Still, it's early yet. Are you coming, then? Did I mention that the door is immensely heavy?"
The little girl shook her head, looking rightly terrified. "Leave. You'll wake him."
"Really quite extraordinarily heavy." I was pushed to my knees, trying to keep it up. "Sarah, Clara?"
They both ran in, and started talking to her. "Merry, we need to leave."
"No. Go away." She backed away as they approached her. Oh, that didn't help.
"Not without you."
God, she was so scared... "You said I wouldn't get it wrong and then I got it wrong. And now this has happened. Look what happened!"
Sarah moved closer, getting down to her level. "You didn't get it wrong. Don't ask me how I know, but I drew you before the Doctor even thought about bringing us here, and I know you get out of here.
"You don't know anything. You have to go! Go now, or he'll eat us all."
Clara walked up to the glass case. "Well, he's ugly. But you know, to be honest, I don't think he looks big enough."
"Not our meat, our souls." Merry then touched her temples and a purple energy stuck Clara to the Mummy's glass box with her back to the occupant. "He doesn't want you. He wants me. If you don't leave, he'll eat you all up too."
"Yes, and you don't want that, do you?" I called, making her look over at me instead. "You want us to walk out of this really quite astonishingly heavy door and never come back."
Merry nodded her agreement. "Yes."
"I see. Right. Sarah and Clara's right. Absolutely never going to happen." And then I rolled out from under the door, just managing to grab the sonic before the door slammed shut.
Sarah was staring at me. "Did you just lock us in with the soul eating monster?"
Ah. "Yep."
"And is there actually a way to get out?"
"What?" I smiled a little, putting my arm around her waist. "Before it eats our souls?"
"Ideally, yes." Clara agreed, rolling her eyes at us.
"Possibly. Probably. There usually seems to be."
Then they both looked at the man still on his knees, singing to himself. "Doctor, why is he still singing? "
"He's trying to sing the Old God back to sleep, but that's not going to happen." Looking at him myself, seeing how desperate he was for it to keep going. "He's waking up, mate. He's coming, ready or not. You want to run." He stopped chanting, getting to his feet. "That's it, then. Song's over."
"The song is over." He agreed, looking at all of us. "My name is Chorister Rezh Baphix, and the Long Song ended with me." Then he used a teleport bracelet, disappearing.
The Mummy then woke up, roaring as he hammered. "Ah ha! Look at that."
"You've woken him." Merry gasped, as Sarah looked alarmed at her new friend who was still stuck on the side of the glass. Well, that was terrifying for her.
"It's awake? What's it doing?"
My Lady laughed uneasily. "Oh, you know. Having a nice stretch. We didn't wake him." She bent back down to look at the younger girl. "And you didn't wake him, either, my little Dove. He's waking because it's his time to wake, and feed. On you, apparently. On your stories."
"She didn't say stories. She said souls." Clara pointed out, fighting to get free of the cage, but her psychokinesis was astoundingly good, better than Phina's even. That was saying something.
"Same thing. The soul's made of stories, not atoms. Everything that ever happened to us. People we love, people we lost. People we found again against all the odds. He threatens to wake, they offer him a pure soul. The soul of the Queen of Years." I explained.
Clara glared at me. "Stop it. You're scaring her."
"Good." I admitted, looking from our strange, 2 times dead friend. "She should be scared. She's sacrificing herself. She should know what that means. Do you know what it means, Merry?"
The small girl nodded. "A god chose me."
"It's not a god." Sarah told her, getting onto her knees, her long skirt brushing the ground. Long black skirt and a red corset. She looked fantastic. "It'll feed on your soul, but that doesn't make it a god. It is a vampire, and you don't need to give yourself to it. Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story? One you might not have heard. All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago, in the heart of a far away star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. Until eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe. There is only one Merry Gejelh. And there will never be another. Getting rid of that existence isn't a sacrifice. It is a waste." How did she know this? She was found in Victorian London, and the discovery of the big bang was nearly 100 years later, how on Earth did my sweet Lady Sarah know this!?
"So, if I don't, then everyone else-"
I smiled warmly at the girl. "Will be fine."
"How?"
"There's always a way"
Merry looked a little more hopeful. "You promise?"
"Cross my hearts." I even did the little motion over them both as Merry let Clara run forwards, hugging Sarah tight before looking back.
And then glared at the pair of us. "Having a nice stretch?" The asteroid rumbled, and we clutched at each other. "Something's coming."
"The Vigil." Merry answered, looking more terrified than she had before.
"And what's the Vigil?"
"If the Queen of Years is unwilling to be feasted upon, it's their job to feed her to Grandfather." A puff of black smoke appeared in the middle of the room and three robotic beings started coming through it. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
Clara and Sarah stepped in front of her protectively. "Don't you dare."
"Yeah, stay back. I'm armed. With a screwdriver." And then they threw me backward, and everything was just stars for a moment before Sarah was thrown in front of me, crying out in pain as Clara was thrown to the other side and Merry lead forward by the Vigils.
Sarah had the sonic, and passed it to me, so I ran forward and set up a shield against the weapon they had as the little Queen ran back to Clara and Sarah. "You know all the stories." The told her, trying to keep her calm. "You must know if there's another way out."
"There's a tale. A secret song. The Thief of the Temple and the Nimmer's Door."
They smiled. "And the secret songs open the secret door? How does it go? Can you sing it?"
She sang a series of notes, and I could feel them resonate through the building and a door slid up in the wall just beyond the Vigils and the Mummy. "Go!"
I followed them out as the sonic shield started failing, and the Mummy broke free of its glass prison, screeching as another build up of energy went through the building, a beam firing at the sun. Then the Vigils disappeared. "Where did they go?"
"Grandfather's awake. They're of no function any more." I told them, hugging Sarah as she seemed scared for a moment, frozen on the spot. She was still carrying around that sketch pad, with her strange drawings that came true. But I hadn't seen one about this.
"Well, you could sound happier about it." Clara told me.
"Actually, I think I may have made a bit of a tactical boo-boo." I admitted, holding her tight. "More of a semantics mix-up, really."
Her eyes went wide and swelled a little. That was rather odd, hadn't met that before. "What boo-boo?"
"I thought the Old God was Grandfather, but it wasn't. It was just Grandfather's alarm clock."
"Sorry, a bit lost. Who's the Old God? Is there an Old God?"
Oh, this was a boo-boo of epic proportions and I didn't know how to fix it. "Unfortunately, yes."
The sun was getting rather active as Sarah suddenly came back to life, staring at it with Clara. "Oh, my stars. What do we do?"
"Against that?" I had a quick think and came up with nothing. "I don't know. Do you know? I don't know. Any ideas?"
Merry stared at me, her eyes as wide as a tigers. "But you promised. You promised!"
"I did. I did promise."
"He'll eat us all." She cried, hiding herself in Sarah's skirts. "He'll spread across the system, consuming the Seven Worlds. And when there's no more to eat, he'll embark on a new odyssey among the stars."
Clara gave me a quick look. "I say leg it."
"Leg it where, exactly?"
"Don't know. Lake District?" She suggested, while Sarah lifted up Merry to hold her, her small bones somehow lifting the girl. Motherly instincts, that was nice.
"Oh, the Lake District's lovely." I agreed, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. "Let's definitely go there. We can eat scones. They do great scones in 1927."
The Blackpool girl sighed. "You're going to fight it, aren't you."
"Regrettably, yes. I think I may be about to do that."
"It's really big."
"I've seen bigger."
That surprised her. "Really?"
Oh, who was I kidding. "Are you joking? It's massive."
"I'm staying with you." Sarah told me, still holding Merry tight, a lioness protecting her cub.
I smiled a little, kissing her forehead. "No, you're not."
"Yes, I am. I can assist. That's why you brought me in the first place, to help you out of your depression."
Oh, she meant so much more to me than that. "No, you can't."
"What about that stuff you said. We don't walk away."
"No. We don't walk away." I agreed, but then put my hand on Merry's back. "But when we're holding on to something precious, we run. We run and run as fast as we can and we don't stop running until we are out from under the shadow. Now, off you two pop. Take the moped. I'll walk."
They nodded, and Sarah kissed me, long and hard, like it was the last time she could, which it could have been, and then they headed back, and I walked around to face the sun, that now had eyes and a mouth. "Any ideas? No, didn't think so. Righty-ho, then." Oh, this was possibly the biggest creature I'd faced since the Devil on Kroptor. "Lordy."
A few minutes later I could hear Merry though, singing the songs that had been bestowed upon her, the songs of the history of her people. They told so many story's and she knew every single one of them. She was their history, as I was the Legacy of mine, and I knew the stories too. "Okay, then. That's what I'll do. I'll tell you a story.
"Can you hear them? All these people who've lived in terror of you and your judgement? All these people whose ancestors devoted themselves, sacrificed themselves, to you. Can you hear them singing?" I asked, letting the knowledge of the Time Lords fill me, letting all the grief over power my senses. "Oh, you like to thing you're a god. But you're not a god. You're just a parasite eaten out with jealousy and envy and longing for the lives of others. You feed on them. On the memory of love and loss and birth and death and joy and sorrow. So, come on, then. Take mine. Take my memories. But I hope you've got a big appetite, because I have lived a long life and I have seen a few things."
Energy tendrils reach out to me, and it hurt as it ripped the memories and emotions out of me. "I walked away from the last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords, thinking I was the last one until she came back. Now she was a real Goddess. And I have the memory, love and loss of her, my Seraphina. Together, we saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained because I lost her. No time. No space. Just me. I walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a mad man. I've watched universes freeze and creations burn. I've seen things you wouldn't believe. I have lost things you will never understand, because I am alone, I am so, so alone. And I know things. Secrets that must never be told. Knowledge that must never be spoken, because not even she could handle it all. Knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze. So come on, then. Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!"
Sarah:
I couldn't leave him there, I really couldn't. Clara was thinking the same, and we both jumped back onto the moped and raced back towards him, the sun still there, and still waiting for something more.
Clara went forwards, as I went to the Doctor's side, holding him up as she took out the book, 101 Places To See, and then the leaf from inside. "Still hungry? "Well, I brought something for you. This. The most important leaf in human history. The most important leaf in human history." The sun smiled at her, and I knew that it wasn't enough, I didn't know how, but I knew the thing would need more after. "It's full of stories, full of history. And full of a future that never got lived. Days that should have been that never were. Passed on to me." A tendril reached for the leaf. "This leaf isn't just the past, it's a whole future that never happened. There are billions and millions of unlived days for every day we live. An infinity. All the days that never came. And these are all my mum's."
The sun still came back once the leaf was gone, and Clara stepped back. And I walked forwards.
"I guess it's my turned. I have no real history. I lost everything I am not long ago. But there it is. An infinite future in here." I took out my sketch book, full of everything that had come true so far, and things that still could. "And an infinite past, where anything could have happened. I could have been a mother, a sister or a warrior. I could have saved people, or I could have been the one putting them in danger, there are so many things that I could have been, and you can have all of the years I've lost. You can have whoever I used to be."
The energy came back again, latching on to me and making my cry in pain as everything was pulled away until the Doctor came over. "Well, come on then. Eat up. Are you full? I expect so, because there's quite a difference, isn't there, between what was and what could have been, or what should have been. There's an awful lot of one, but there's an infinity of the others." And then it was gone, and so was the sketch book, leaving me to fall into the Doctor's arm, too weak to stand. "And two infinity's too much, even for your appetite."
DW
He carried me back to the TARDIS, along with Clara following us silently. He out me down on the chair as he quickly took us back to her house, the box guttering and shaking as we went. "Home again, home again, jiggity jig."
She opened the door, looking out at the house. "It looks different."
"Nope. Same house, same city, same planet." The Doctor told her, checking the scanner. "Hey! Same day, actually. Not bad. Hole in one." Why was that surprising, did he often get it wrong?
And then Clara looked back at us, as I got shakily to my feet, standing next to him. "You were there. At mum's grave. You were watching. What were you doing there?"
"I don't know." I admitted, looking at the Doctor before turning back to her. "We were just making sure."
"Of what?"
He sighed a little. "You remind us of someone"
Clara looked interested now. "Who?"
"Someone who died."
That was a shock to her. "Well, whoever she was, I'm not her, okay?" That was rather debatable. "If you want me to travel with you, that's fine. But as me. I'm not a bargain basement stand-in for someone else. I'm not going to compete with a ghost, just like Sarah isn't going to for this Seraphina chick."
He smiled a little, kissing my hand. "No." He agreed, and then held out the ring she gave to Dor'een. "They wanted you to have it."
"Who did?"
"Everyone." I smiled at her, giving her a quick hug. We'd become fast friends, just as we had before. I just didn't want to lose this version.
"All the people you two saved. The both of you. No one else. Clara and Lady Sarah." She smiled at us both, and then took her ring and left the TARDIS. She was the same girl, yet she couldn't be. And how were my drawings coming true?